The subject matter disclosed herein relates to a turbomachine. Specifically, the subject matter disclosed herein relates to stationary blade design that results in a hybrid vortexing flow as operating fluid moves through the turbomachine.
Turbines (e.g., steam turbines or gas turbines) include static nozzle (or “airfoil”) segments that direct flow of a working fluid into turbine buckets connected to a rotor. A complete assembly of nozzle segments is sometimes referred to as a diaphragm stage (e.g., a diaphragm stage of a steam turbine), where a plurality of stages form a diaphragm assembly. The diaphragm assembly is designed to convert thermal energy of the working fluid to tangential momentum that is used to drive the bucket and rotor. During this process, leakage flow through the cavities between rotating parts and stationary parts can reduce turbine efficiency because of the amount of leakage flow and the intrusion loss from the interaction of the core flow and leakage flow. Through design of the blade geometry, aerodynamic loss can be reduced and accordingly the efficiency (power output) of the turbine increases.